Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
The present invention relates to reconstructing and paving roads. More specifically, the present invention is a method for designing and building a road using in-place ground components rather than removing and replacing them.
Currently, when roads are re-built, materials such as stone, dirt, and gravel are often excavated and removed. Then, aggregate base material and hot mix asphalt are brought to the construction site, and multiple layers are placed on the cleared area. One disadvantage with such a process is that it is time consuming because it requires two operations. In one operation, a dirt or gravel road is broken up, and the material is removed. Then, in the second operation, the aggregate and asphalt are transported to the site and placed on the excavated surface.
Another disadvantage with such a process is that it is expensive. The traffic levels expected on a road for years into the future must be projected so that the necessary thickness and strength of road is built. It is difficult to project future traffic levels and so the road may be over designed by making the road too thick. Alternatively, too weak or too narrow of a road is built, and the road must be rebuilt using this expensive process in just a few years.
Still another disadvantage with such a process is that multiple layers of pavement may need to be placed on a roadway to provide sufficient structural support for the loads to be supported by the roadway. In many circumstances, this necessitates the roadway to be built up higher than what is safe or practical. If a sufficient thickness of asphalt is not placed on the roadway, the road will break up quickly.
In many instances, the height of the road can be raised only if the shoulders and areas beyond are raised and meet slope requirements. Also, there is often no space for widening the road because it extends beyond the existing right-of-way requiring land adjacent to the road to be purchased and causing additional expense.
In order to overcome these disadvantages, a method for designing and building a new roadway using in-place materials from the existing roadway is provided. This allows a road to be built downward instead of upward with limited additional height added.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for reconstructing a dirt or gravel roadway to create a paved roadway of desired thickness without the need to increase the height of the paved roadway beyond acceptable levels so that the road meets structural requirements for existing and future traffic levels without significant profile or geometric changes.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for making a road that uses materials currently in the roadway so that cost savings for materials are realized and time for moving the materials is reduced.
According to the present invention, the foregoing and other objects are achieved by a method of stabilizing a gravel and/or dirt roadway. This method includes evaluating a roadway to determine if it is an appropriate candidate for emulsion stabilization, rotating a milling head along a roadway to break up gravel and dirt, injecting an asphalt emulsion into the broken up gravel and dirt, and mixing the emulsion with the gravel and dirt so as to form an asphalt emulsion stabilized layer. The emulsion stabilized layer is then spread and compacted to create a paved roadway. Following this, a wearing surface or surface treatment may be applied to the emulsion stabilized layer.
Additional objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will be set forth in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention.